Oldude's new 400 gal tank build

Ok I'll play it safe. Tony I will likely take you up on your offer for the cans. Thanks.
 
Great build Greg-looking forward to you working your magic in this bad boy-I agree, be very patient and careful shimming up your tank, better safe then sorry
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14074753#post14074753 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Oldude
As usual I have to do things the hard way, so now the tank is up and full of water I have come to the conclusion I need to level it. It is out about 3/4" end to end. :mad2: Time to go buy a 4 ton jack so I can shim up the one side.

It is never easy Greg! You got a level issue, I got a water level issue...lol Keep at it!
 
I have around 100g ish in rubbermaids and coolers (that have probably seen more tank water than ice water). PM me on the up north site if you need to borrow them.
 
Thanks much you guys I am getting very impatient. I am considering taking most of next week off to work on the build.
Doug thanks for the offer but I think I have most of the volume covered.
Tomorrow is the "level the tank" day so hopefully the plan works. I'll try and remember to take pix of the process.
 
Thanks James.
Haven't snapped any coral pix in a few weeks so here's a couple I took tonight.
This piece is now finally coloured up all over. I kind of like it so I'll call this todays favorite.
jan9002Ty1.jpg


My little purple Lokani fell into a shadey spot and browned out a bit. Since I moved it back into the light it seems to be turning quite bluey. (is that even a word?)
jan9011lokani1.jpg


Here's a fairly hard to photograph mille tucked in amongst several other acros that over grew it. I need to get it back in some brighter light.
jan9006pinkmille.jpg
 
Great lookin tank so far cant wait to see it filled. However i do pitty you when have to take all those coral and live rock out to move to your new tank. I just did this today and i only upgraded from a 55 to a 70 gal and i was so frustrated when the rocks wernt lining up and things werent going right. Well good luck cant wait to see it.
 
stunreefer - thanks:)

Phillybean - Wow, I like the first one! Amazing color! What's the name of that one? Frags available?
thanks but no frags of that one at this time.

volcom69 - Great lookin tank so far cant wait to see it filled. However i do pitty you when have to take all those coral and live rock out to move to your new tank. I just did this today and i only upgraded from a 55 to a 70 gal and i was so frustrated when the rocks wernt lining up and things werent going right. Well good luck cant wait to see it.
Thanks. Yep it's going to be a big job.:rolleyes:


asonitez - are your lights T-5? in the existing tank?
They are a mix but mostly mh.
 
live test

live test

This week I ran a live test in the system with some fish, snails, hermits, live rock(all from my sump) & misc coral subjects. Other than the anticipated algae bloom things seem pretty stable and I continue to slowly mix the two systems water together a bit at a time. :)
Here's some shots of the test from this morning.
FTS
jan10005ftstest1.jpg

Some of the test subjects.
jan10001livetest1.jpg
 
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Phillybean - Looks good...already one nice island
Thanks but that it just temporary. Only the table and two back rocks are tie-strapped together. I plan to zip tie the majority of the rock together so I avoid the house of cards I had in my old set up. Although that said most of the rock now is encrusted together by coral but that took quite a while and I want to prevent the inevitable rock slides that would occur.
 
The leveling of the tank went very smooth and after settling it is less than 1/4" difference along the 8 foot span. It was dead on but settled more than anticipated after the water was pumped back in. It is not very noticable so I can live with it. We used left over tile scraps for the shims. The sump is also now filled and running as well. Here are some pictures of how it all unfolded.

Here is a picture of the tile floor in front of the tank. We were careful not damage the tiles during the lift.
jan10pm001tile1.jpg


I used several containers to pump water into.
jan10pm002totes.jpg

jan10pm013totes2.jpg


Here is Kevin manning the saws-all so we could jack from each side.
jan10pm014kevin.jpg


Action shot of the actual lift. I used bottle jacks rated for 12 tons so it was pretty easy.
jan10pm015jack1.jpg
 
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Here are some pictures of the sump and plumbing, etc. Several 1" ball valves were put in place for add on such as chiller, reactors, etc. Another on the other side to make future water changes more convenient.
jan10pm021dartsump.jpg

jan10pm029sumpplumb2.jpg

jan10pm025sumpplumb1.jpg

Filter Sock set up
jan10pm027sock.jpg


Here is a FTS showing the results of much more level tank.
jan10pm030FTSafter.jpg


The next couple of days I will continue to mix the water in the two systems so it will be consistent when I move everything over.:rolleyes: This is going to be a really big job. Let the fun begin!
 
Here's a couple of top down shots of a couple of corals getting ready for the move.
jan10pm012valida.jpg

This photosynthetic gorgonian I got as a 1" frag a few years ago will get a spot where it will have room to sway in the current & grow tall. It's about a foot tall now.
jan10pm010gorgonian.jpg

Tricolour Valida:)
jan9010tricolour.jpg

My ever morphing birdnest.
jan9003BN1.jpg
 
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